


Champion

by Skarias



Series: Collateral Damage [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/M, Friendship, Headcanon, LS Bounty Hunter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 03:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15677586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skarias/pseuds/Skarias
Summary: He won the Great Hunt, he defeated Tarro Blood and was proclaimed 'Mandalore's Champion'.He really doesn't feel like a Champion.





	Champion

 

_Champion_

 

 

 _Mandalore's Champion_ , the words left a sour taste in his mouth as he tries them out multiple times and he couldn't quite figure out why. He should be celebrating, Avou knows that, overjoyed that they won the oh so _prestigious_ Great Hunt. But he wasn't. There he was, alone on the Mantis, currently resembling a ghost ship more than anything else, hands absently fumbling with the different sized and coloured bottles he didn't bother to read the labelings of inside the ship's bar, something strong, he hopes.

 

The bounty hunter wonders when exactly stealing starships and freezing bitchy criminals in carbonite turned into taking out Republic corvettes and killing Jedi Masters. _What are you waiting for? Kill me just like you killed my Master!_ Avou grabs one of the bottles and takes a swig, gulping down the alcoholic beverage like water as he pushes the fresh memory towards the back of his mind.

 

Revenge was a funny thing, he thinks to himself, you'd think killing the man that hunted you across the stars and killed your best friends makeshift family would make you feel better, make some of it seem worthwile, even just, perhaps. It doesn't. He wonders if whoever put that bounty on Kellian Jarro's head felt better right know, knowing that the butcher of mandalorians was dead. He takes another sip from the bottle and closes his eyes as the alcohol runs down his throat.

 

Tarro Blood was gone, helplessly sucked into a black hole together with the rest of the ship while he could do nothing but watch and observe from his cell. He doesn't know how many of the crew of the Aurora made it out alive, he wishes he would and doesn't at the same time. Medics, engineers, non-military passengers, didn't matter, they're dead, dead because they just so happened to be on the same cruiser as his target. Maybe the other Jedi got to an escape pod in time, Avou hoped she did. _No one paid you to kill me, is that it?_

 

"Hey," a voice calls out behind him, he turns around slowly and gives her an acknowledging nod, Mako's tone too cheerful to be genuine as she swings herself into the barstool next to him and places the datapad she carries around everywhere almost religiously on the counter, "Figured I'd find you here."

 

"Hey," he replies, trying to adapt her upbeat nature and failing miserably at it, "Thought you'd be out celebrating." _Braden, Jory, Anuli._ Collateral damage of the Great _fucking_ Hunt. He still can't look her in the eye ever since Nar Shaddaa. _Not fast enough._ _Never fast enough._

 

"Celebrating with whom? Gault and Crysta?" Mako says, chuckling lightly and putting on her best impression of a smile. It didn't quiet reach her eyes. It so rarely did. _Too slow._ "I think I prefer your company over theirs."

 

"Flatterer." he replies groggily, setting the empty bottle aside and reaching for the next one as Mako shuffles out of her seat next to him and slips around the counter. Rummaging through the closet mounted on the wall above the bar, having to stand on her tiptoes to reach all the way towards the back she pulls out two glasses and places them in front of the pale skinned zabrak.

 

"If I remember correctly," she begins as she pulls a barstool towards her, sits down opposite of him and points towards one of the neon labeled bottles, "I got you that one. Which means _you_ are legally obliged to share." she smiles again. He wishes it would reach her eyes.

 

"Well then, wouldn't want to do anything to upset the law." he replies as she opens the bottle, a deep chuckle filling the small room while the purple liquid filled their glasses.

 

"A toast," Mako suggests as she lifts her drink.

 

"To the fallen ones." Avou finishes her sentence as their glasses clink together and they down their drinks.

 

They sit in silence for a few minutes, absently nursing their drinks as both of them fumble for the right words, the right thing to say that could fight off the silence that loomed ominiously in the room.

 

"Did I ever tell you about that time Braden took me to Coruscant?" she asks a few moments later, looking up from her glimmering datapad as he poured another round.

 

 _She has, at least four times by now, he remembers. But that didn't matter._ "No," he replies after setting the bottle down, "Who did you piss off there?" he smiles into his drink as he moves the glass to his lips. Avou spots a spark in her eyes as her mind pieces the parts of the story together and he can't stop smiling.

 

"Black Sun, actually." Mako begins, retelling the tale he knows inside and out, after taking another sip from her own drink, "We got intel about a hidden network of spies inside the Republic senate and-"

 

The spark didn't leave her eyes until the early morning hours crept up on them and they began to run out of stories to tell. He could pretend the galaxy was all right, that he was all right, that, in the dim lights of the Mantis and the best company he could hope for, everything was all right. As long as he could keep that spark alive.


End file.
